The annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Euro­pean He­ma­tol­ogy Asso­ci­a­tion (EHA) took place earlier this month. The two meetings were attended by tens of thousands of physi­cians from around the world, and featured a myriad of oral pre­sen­ta­tions, posters, and e-abstracts summarizing the re­­sults of new on­col­ogy- and he­ma­tol­ogy-related re­search.

Included in the re­search pre­sented at the two meetings were more than 200 stud­ies discussing new mul­ti­ple myeloma-related findings.

In addi­tion to the two large meetings held earlier this month, the Inter­na­tion­al Myeloma Work­ing Group (IMWG) …

In a recent review article pub­lished in the journal Clinical Cancer Re­search, two myeloma experts from the Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute, Dr. Nikhil Munshi and Dr. Kenneth Anderson, review the latest strategies in the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma.

In their article, the experts discuss newer ther­a­pies that appear to be promising in clin­i­cal and pre­clin­i­cal stud­ies.

According to the physicians, com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies that spe­cif­i­cally target a patient’s ge­netic form of the dis­ease will be re­quired for long-term dis­ease con­trol and ultimately a cure.

Some Historical Perspective

In their review article, Drs. Munshi and …

Ever since I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma five and a half years ago, hardly a day goes by when I don’t read some breathtaking headline about the promise of “personalized medicine” in the treatment of cancer.

News article after news article declares that breakthroughs in unlocking cancer's genetic code will lead to new, highly individualized, highly effective treatments.

Sounds great.  How could it not make your heart race a little faster knowing a cure is right around the corner?

Yet, when I go to talk to my doctor, none of this …

Dr. Kenneth Anderson, a world-renowned myeloma spe­cialist, physician and re­searcher at Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute, and Kraft Family Pro­fessor at Harvard Medical School, spoke with The Myeloma Beacon about his ap­proach to treating mul­ti­ple myeloma patients.

This article is the sec­ond part of a two-part series based on The Myeloma Beacon’s interview with Dr. Anderson.  It will cover Dr. Anderson’s thoughts on where myeloma treat­ment is headed in the com­ing years.  For more in­­for­ma­tion on Dr. Anderson’s cur­rent ap­proach to treating mul­ti­ple myeloma, please see part one of this series.

Emerging Therapies …